hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. following developing news this hour. house speaker boehner said moments ago after today the senate and white house will, quote, have to act on his plan "b" to avert the fiscal cliff. the house speaker already scamibling for enough votes for when the measure coming up tonight. democrats said it's dead on arrival and the president vowed to veto it. >> two years ago, 53 democrats

voted for a bill like this one. now they say they oppose it. but rather than tell us what they can't do, maybe they should tell us what they can do. >> there remains even at this late date an opportunity to do something big and good for the american people. they certainly didn't send a signal november 6th what they wanted to see five days before christmas was a bill become law that gives millionaires and billionaires a $50,000 tax cut on average. >> by putting up the measure that's going nowhere fast, our first read team asked if speaker boehner is walking away from a grand bargain like in the debt ceiling negotiations before. quote, the white house is telegraphing the fact that it wants to keep negotiating but republicans claim that's purely for show and that behind the scenes the white house refused to reach out since boehner announced his plan "b." let's bring in the member of the house budget committee, sir,

thank you for your time again. >> tamron, how are you doing well today? >> i'm doing well but looks like things in that town are not going well and means bad news for people at home. what is your reaction to speaker boehner at this point saying, basically, it is his plan "b" or nothing? >> i hoped after the election we would come back here to this institution and do the peoples' work. you know, i'm beginning to lose faith in what i thought was going to happen because i think mr. boehner has resorted to the worst of levels and that is he's brought up legislation in order to help the right wing of his party. these are all measures, tamron, that were in a measure that we voted on in may which democrats soundly rejected. mr. boehner is still fighting this election. it is over, mr. speaker. let's get on with the peoples' work. let's have a balanced approach. the president has already reached out. he's already compromised.

he's brought that threshold up from 250,000 to 400,000. i think that is -- i think that that is the right way to go. and what is mr. boehner's response to it? he wants to take that down, okay, i'll increase the tax rates but only up to -- only down to a million dollars. and we know that that's not going to bring in enough money. we need a trillion, $200 billion to make this work. there are cuts in the president's proposal. i don't agree with all of the president's proposals but, darn, i know that it's the right thing to do for my district, the state of new jersey and the rest of the states in this union. he has made a farce out of this and all's he's doing is posturing now, mr. boehner. he should have been ashamed of himself. >> you said he is appealing to appeal to the right wing of his party and you have conservative groups slamming this plan "b." let me play some of the criticism he's getting from the

right of the party. let's play it. >> the american people did not re-elect the conservative house of representatives to become tax collectors for barack obama's welfare state. >> we supported challengers who were opposed to t.a.r.p., who were opposed to the debt deal. 2011. and this is the sort of vote that we'll look at closely when we look at our options in 2014. >> so congressman pascrell, they oppose plan "b" differently than your opposition but you have two different sides of this coin and people are wondering where speaker boehner is at all on this when no one is happy and if he's appealing to the right, they're not pleased with him. >> well, mr. boehner has the hell of a nerve to say that mister -- the president of the united states barack obama can't stand up to his party. we are united behind the president. we are not going to get in to the weeds and the particulars who are against this or for that. it is mr. boehner who has

problems with his own party and now since they've handed the clips that you saw, he has now even gone worse in to the weeds and gone back to legislation that was turned down by the united states senate in may of this year which would hurt children and middle class families and increase the taxes by $1,000 giving $50,000 plus cuts to those making more than a million dollars. he is ridiculous and he's gone over the edge. >> and if that is the case, that he has gone over the edge, will the rest of us then go with him? >> well, we're still there negotiating. the president wants to negotiate. the president doesn't want to go off the cliff because, you know, if we don't go off the cliff, it will help the confidence in the economy, the markets will respond. so what are we gaining by this standoff? we are right back where we were last may. >> yes. >> mr. boehner forgot to look at the results of this election. i am i'm sorry but that's where

we're at and conservative economists say that. liberal economists say that and americans are saying that and we should do this and call up mr. boehner and tell him what we think about these things. it is not worth selling out the middle class, mr. boehner. it is not. >> thank you, so much, sir. i appreciate your time and passion behind all of this. i hope to speak with you very soon. >> thank you, tamron. >> absolutely. >> let's bring in seener writer lois romano and zachary campbell. lois, it's not clear if speaker boehner has enough votes for the plan "b" from republicans. what are we to make of this situation as we tick-tock to this vote tonight? >> well, it appears what speaker boehner's doing is try to -- with eric cantor, trying to kick the ball down the field. right now, the entire burden is on them. as all the public opinion polls

have showed. the american people think the wealthy should be taxed so what they're trying to do is say, okay, we're going to take this vote, hell or high water, and then it's up to you guys and i think they're hoping that then it will appear that they're the obstructionists, the democrats which i don't think the american people are that shallow. i think they'll see what's going on here. >> basically, speaker boehner's comments earlier today that the plan protects 98.1% and is it just at this point an optics? maybe a few people will hear that sound bite and appear that the republicans are suddenly protecting the middle class and it is the democrats who don't care what happens to you after the beginning of the new year? >> well, yes. i think that's exactly what's going on. look at it this way. the top 2% earners in this country are at $250,000. which is where barack obama started. he wanted everybody, the tax increase to kick back in for them. >> right. >> so congressman boehner, you

know, there's still a lot of people there that, you know, below that that are going to feel that these people should be taxed. so i'm not sure that he's going to get done what he wants to get done. >> and i think a lot of people not sure to add to your point what he wants done but let me bring in zachary. there's a new cnn poll out. who should compromise more, republicans 53%, democrats 41%. you have the president making movement on the people, the income threshold from 250 to 400,000. we saw compromise on spending cuts, as well. just looking at the numbers here, the president said yesterday, there is not an insurmountable gap but how do you process, zachary, the movement here by speaker boehner? is this a sense of him walking away from a grand bargain? >> politico had one of the better lines saying the differences between the sides are wide and narrow, meaning the dollar amount, i don't know 300

billion. >> i think 350 billion. >> something to bridge in the spectrum of $3.5 trillion federal budget. >> if that's it, minuscule and billions and national economy, this is a small amount, what then is the problem? >> right. it's the optics of who has the power and who doesn't and i don't think we should underestimate while we love them to look out as public servants for the good of the country they're looking out for their own political clout in washington. >> let me stop it there. if it's about who has the power, let's play what rush limbaugh and joe scarborough criticize. let me play it. >> so i assume 400 and then boehner did a million. i said, hey, that's great. these guys are coming together and i thought that number was going to be 500. the president would take 500, i think. >> he would. >> john boehner makes this -- you know, he said, starts talking about plan "b" and i get confused.

>> if you look at what the speaker has proposed, he's conceded -- there it is. there's the word. there it is. stop the tape. that's what this is all been about. he has wanted the republicans to concede that tax cuts for the rich caused all these problems. >> so, there he is going on about the president, rush limbaugh, but he was critical of boehner. he played the conservative organizations who basically warned the republicans, we are coming for you. >> right. >> unhappy for different reasons. people on the left and people on the right but all unhappy with speaker boehner. does he have any power? >> i think one thing that all of this avoids confronting is if nothing gets done, everything the republicans want as really precious in the sense of no tax increases happens. it's very hard to see an end game here where the republicans given the current realities, and this is just the structure of realities come out of this doing well and confronting the

reality. a different person might say, look, this is going to end badly if it doesn't end better for us. we're much better off saying, okay, accept a certain degree of tax raises and take the spending cuts to get and negotiate in the future. you know, why that's not happening, why people don't behave the way it would seem obvious for them to behave is a whole other question of psychology and power. >> last week it was chuck todd saying it matters the deal, a big deal or something broken up in parts. and now, what is the answer to that? is it a no-deal at this point at all? >> i think that, you know, one of the things that speaker boehner is trying to do is maybe address something incremental here. i don't know that he can get it done because already he's had to give on defense cuts. you know? the right flank of his party, they're not particularly happy with this. he has the most unenviable job

in washington right now. you know, he clearly is like a ping-pong ball. >> now it appears that may be the criticism of the speaker. thank you both. also this afternoon, less than 24 hours, the nra will break its silence to address, quote, meaningful contributions to ensure mass shootings like the one in newtown never happens again but last night the host of the organization's web cast continued to be critical of any attempt at gun control including president obama's announcement of a brand new task force on gun violence headed by vp joe biden. >> when you look at the president, he mentioned, he's going to tackle this on all fronts but the majority of his press conference today was about guns. you can ban whatever you want. he'll find something else to get. if he can't get his hands on that, he'll find something else.

>> in just the last hour, the vice president held his first meeting with the task force meeting with u.s. attorney general eric holder and law enforcement officials from around this country. ag holder will head to newtown later today to meet with first responders to the sandy hook massacre and three more victims will be laid to rest today. nguyen rals will be held for kathlyn hubbard, benjamin wheeler and ann marie murphy, a special education teacher. joining me now, msnbc contributor, michael smerkonish. michael, we heard the host of the nra webcast saying the president, getting his hands on essentially their guns. why would we expect the nra to say anything different from what's being broadcast on its show tomorrow? >> that's a narrative they have fostered about president obama for the last at least four years. and the practical effect of that, tamron, is to cause a run

on guns and ammunition, the likes of which you are seeing right now at walmart where certain of the weapons have run out. they're selling them at that rapid of a clip and yet the reality is that the folks at the brady foundation given very poor grades to the president throughout the course of the first administration. why would they say it? that's what they're in business to do. i'm optimistic they'll take a different approach tomorrow because of that pledge of meaningful contributions and two things to know right off the bat. one, will they embrace a concept of background checks because nearly half 069 weapon that is are required in this country are done without background checks and are they ready to go along with a ban on military-style assault weapons? if they're not prepared to deal on the two issues then it will be the same old-same old nra argument. >> a hunter writes about the need for moderate alternative to the nra. he said, reaching out to pro-hunting moderates is perhaps

our best hope of ending the national stalemate over gun control. if influential leaders want to do something about gun safety, they should launch an advocacy group for sports men for an alternative to today's gun lobby. a lot of people thought earlier in the week senator manchin, a lifelong member of the nra, would be one of those voices, has credibility with gun enthusiasts and hunter, that he would be a voice but just yesterday that senator manchin appeared to soften saying he's been proud of the nra and not ready to support any ban of any kind at this point. who is or what would be the reasonable voice in the middle or should we be looking for a moderate and looking at what is right and what is wrong and we all know what happened in newtown, what happened in aurora and other places with an assault weapon, magazines that hold those kinds of ammunition that that is wrong. why do we need someone in the

middle to tell us that? >> tamron, i don't know what fills that void but i do believe that that vacuum exists. >> what about common sense filling that void? how about that? i know we are supposed to look at all sides but some point common sense as my dad says has to rule the day. >> tamron, i'm a firearm owner. they certainly don't speak for me. and i think that there are for whom they don't speak but been a tendency in the past to look at those who own weapons and think that they all come under the umbrella of the nra. the statement earlier in the week where they talked about meaningful contributions said, you know, we speak for our 4 million members and i looked and said, geez, is that all they have? 4 million. because to read some of the assessments, you would swear they have 100% of those who are firearm owners and they certainly don't speak for the individuals who hunting is a tradition. like it is in my home state. these are not people -- >> my home state. i grew up with a gun in the

home. we are talking about not -- i think people who grew up in cultures of gun or not more so what is right and what is wrong. >> thfar eed zakariah pointed o that we have 50% of the guns in the world and can't say it's mental health issue only. tough deal with that glaring statistic. i think it's recipe of things to be done but tomorrow is instructfinstruc instructful seeing what is the nra prepared to do or the slope argument saying we can't give an inch? i don't think that carries sway today. >> we'll see if at least the early statement matches what we hear tomorrow. a lot of expectations there. thank you very much, michael. >> thank you, tamron. programming note, the nra's ceo will appear on "meet the

press" exclues ily, that's the only sunday morning program he will give an interview to and see that and check local listings for times. right now the hearings on the ben za ga zi attacks goes on. earlier senator john kerry pointed the finger back at congress for mistakes that led to the attacks. >> i want to be krystal clear about something else. congress also bears some responsibility here. congress has the power of the purse. plus, it was once believed newark mayor booker would run for governor of new jersey but with chris christie's approval rating at an all-time high, booker makes this announcement regarding his political future. >> i'll explore the possibility of running for the united states senate in 2014. >> it is just one of the things we thought you should know and you can join our conversation.

heated words on capitol hill today in hearings on the deadly attack on the consulate in benghazi. this morning, all eyes were on committee chairman john kerry who's widely expected to succeed hillary clinton as secretary of state. he was quick to point out congress should take some blame for what happened in benghazi. >> i want to be krystal clear about something else. congress, also, bears some responsibility here. congress has the power of the purse. adequately funding america's foreign policy objectives is not spending. it's investing. >> this morning's hearing marked

by sharp questioning by republican senators. >> secretary clinton just sent up a notification to congress asking for $1.3 billion. why did she never ask for any notification or change of resources to make sure benghazi was secured? >> we are in a situation where the middle east is evolving. democracies are growing. militaries are forming and we must look at each and every one of those sites and every one of our posts and reexamine it under a new normal. >> you were aware of the security risk there. we have read the cables. you were fully aware. and either you sent people there with security or you don't send them there. >> and a hearing by the house foreign affairs committee started an hour ago. nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell joins us. we know it was early on about susan rice and now at a hearing you have some conservatives who perhaps would like to take on secretary of state hillary

clinton but are either afraid or don't have the proper ammunition with the report to take her on. nevertheless, how much is she a focus of some of the questions and comments today? >> reporter: well, there's certainly high interest in having hillary clinton testify and her aides are telling the appropriate committees here that she will appear in january. so that sort of took some of the air out of that balloon about whether or not she would come here and explain. so she has two of the deputies here and the focus has shifted away from susan rice and about basically resources, was there enough available? in terms of money and security. and did the state department manage it properly? they acknowledge what they call a systemic failure allowing for the ambassador to be in a place he didn't have sufficient security. they said they're making changes at the places that they think are in volatile regions, adding marine to some of those posts to enhance security and other things that need to be done to make things better.

there is a question of who knew what when and that's where secretary clinton comes in and even people at a level below her but above those who are -- who have resigned as a result of this. we heard some of that questioning today of senator marco rubio. >> my last question is, beyond the assistant secretary level, there was a general and specific awareness of a rapidly deteriorating security situation in libya of the repeated requests from the team on the ground for security and of the inability of the libyans to -- >> senator -- sorry. senator, what i would say is there's a general awareness of both the deteriorating security situation in eastern libya and also there was not only a general awareness, but a real concern. >> reporter: and so, they acknowledge there were worries of what was happening on the ground in libya. they say that some of the intelligence they were getting, they did not realize would be a direct assault on the u.s. they saw it as more being about

what was happening in libya. an enso, there are questions to be asked and answered. it continues this afternoon and secretary clinton plans to come here sometime in january. tamron? >> thank you very much. let me bring in bobby goeshch. you have the back and forth and what can she say that's not in the report that we have read? >> what you have now with the hearings is a sideshow. >> it's quite clear of the changes and what happened. >> and state department fessed up. four officials have fallen on their sword. all that remains is some political point scoring taking place. senator kerry wants to look -- what's the equivalent of presidential. secreta secretarial. shouldn't he recuse themselves to be secretary of state? you have the democrats taking

the rediktible line and this is a circus missing the main act until hillary clinton comes to the center circle of the circus this is a sideshow. >> again, if she comes to continue your thought and she does testify, do we really expect, you know, some of the republican senators or people participating in the hearings to challenge her, not to say she is not challengeable, but on what grounds and the report is clear, are they going to look at her and say, this is your fault and the susan rice thing, that's not what we meant? >> posing for the cameras. finger wagging. perhap with a view of 2016. she is a lame duck secretary of state. not a lot to be gained by wagging a finger at her in real political terms but this is about point scoring. >> but to your point, if they then try to now stop halfway or nearly when the game is over and say the questions are for secretary clinton, when for the

last several months they have been obsessed as the president called it with susan rice -- >> yeah. >> it does not then seem that hillary clinton was a concern or the questions to ask in january are legislatimate because they would have been asking it where on fox that they have appeared with the criticism. >> that's right. susan rice was a target as a potential secretary of state. now that she is no longer, they have lost interest in her. kerry hasn't take on the job yet. hillary clinton is the last person to whom they can point a finger before this thing essentially goes. the good news is that there seems to be now a consensus of more spending on state department so i think at the end of the day state department comes away from this with additional funding. >> after the losses of life. >> hopefully enough to prevent such a thing from happening again. >> all right. bobby, thank you very much. >> any time. first major winter storm of

the season hammer it is country. some video coming out, quite freightening. delays, cancelations being reported. plus, outgoing senator scott brown becomes the first republican senator to say, he would back a new federal assault weapons ban. what that may have to do with his political future. it is one of the things we thought you should know. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪

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moines. in wisconsin, governor scott walker declared a state of emergency. mike seidel is in wisconsin dells, north of madison. that looks worse than when i saw her earlier. >> reporter: worse for you. better for me. this is what we live for at the weather channel. the cancelations, they have jumped about twofold or more at o'hare. 402 flights. at midway, 123. between the two, 525 flights canceled in and out of the airports, a third of all flights. not because it's snowing. not yet. that's coming in around this afternoon around dinner time, too. we are getting the blowing snow. drifting snow. looking down towards interstate 90 and 94, see another plow off in to the distance and then lose him and half a mile and that's how hard it's snowing. winds gusting about 25 miles per hour. but we have had gusts over 40,

50 today across parts of iowa, nebraska and in kansas city a gust of 57. we've had about 9 inches of snow. looking at another 4 or 5 inches of snow combined with the winds. whiteout conditions. blizzard warning across wisconsin and, tamron, in chicago, the bottom's going to fall out around say 5:00 to 7:00. wind and snow. first measurable snow of the season. that's a record latest and there will be more flights canceled at o'hare. for you back east, wind and flight delays later tomorrow and all day saturday but no snow in the cities. back the you. >> all right. mike, thank you very much. we'll talk with you i'm sure tomorrow. coming up -- >> and then it will be up to senate democrats and the white house to act. >> with fiscal cliff talks teetering on the edge, is speaker boehner ready to walk away again? we'll get the first read of senior political editor of nbc mark murray. the nra will hold a major

news conference today. today's the gut check question for you. do you think the organization will announce any support for gun control legislation? it's your "gut check" coming up. check out the tumblr page. that is picture of the news nation's youngest fan, he is getting the first hair cut today. something that will make you smile or laugh. [ male announcer ] playing in the nfl is tough. ♪ doing it with a cold, just not going to happen. vicks dayquil -- powerful non-drowsy 6-symptom cold & flu relief. ♪ no matter what city you're playing tomorrow. [ coughs ] [ male announcer ] you can't let a cold keep you up tonight. ♪ vicks nyquil -- powerful nighttime 6-symptom cold & flu relief. ♪

can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. house republican leaders are confident that speaker boehner's plan "b" will pass when it comes up for a vote later today but what about plan "a"? both sides holding hope the president and speaker boehner reach a grand bargain. congresswoman swartz joins us live from capitol hill.

great pleasure to have you on again. >> sure. always good to be on. >> the president already budged on the flesh hold of income to $400,000 from $250,000. he's also agreed to putting aside some social security cuts on the tables making progressives unhappy and the president talked about compromise and it wouldn't feel good for either side. but at this point, where do we go from here? >> well, you know, you're absolutely right. the president has gone really a great way to finding that common ground. many of us thought that, in fact, the president and speaker boehner were making progress and the action by speaker boehner and the republicans is about republicans -- i was going to say talking to each other, talking to republicans but really not moving us forward at all. there's no question what they're going to pass if they can find the republican votes to do it, which is, you know, to move forward on a tax plan that doesn't really reduce the deficit and doesn't deal with really the kind of agreement we

have to have that would reduce the deficit in a serious way and protect the middle class and grow the economy in the future. this is not making progress. and we should be concerned that speaker boehner has got to come back to the table. has got to be able to find that common ground and he has to do it with some republicans and some democrats. and to the degree he's just talking to his own conference, it's not going to get us there. >> we know that the speaker has not met with the president since i believe it was monday but do you believe that speaker boehner is acting in good faith as far as negotiations here? we know that to get some more republicans on board in the house later today with the vote he has replaced the automatic cuts scheduled for the defense department, the sequestration and replaced them with domestic spending cuts. is he acting in good faith in your opinion? >> well, i don't want to speak to his motivation but i can say that it's been clear all along that we need spending cuts, we

preefr to see sequester not go in to effect and find other ways to find that trillion dollars in spending cuts and that's been a discussion. it is not going to get done the way speaker boehner put out and passed that in may. it's not going to get passed in the senate. the president already said it's not acceptable to go in this direction. really,just hurting middle class, lower middle class americans much more so and not getting us to the kind of deficit reduction or economic growth or a balanced plan we need. so why he's doing this, it's hard to understand the scenario of how it moves us forward. they needed to give republicans a chance to vote on something they don't want to vote on? again, i have to ask the republicans moves us any way forward or gets us a chance to really get to that common ground between republicans and democrats. a lot is really on speaker boehner to make this work and he walked away a couple of days

ago. >> do you believe he permanently walked away? looking at the clock, the calendar, are we going over the cliff? >> well, i certainly don't want to go over the cliff. i think most of us don't. the president doesn't. we are prepared for a reasonable conversation and negotiation. i believe we were fairly close when john boehner walked away. i believe there's enough votes between republicans and democrats to get it done and before the end of the year, create a consumer and investor confidence and move forward and deal with the serious problems we have and move on and tackle them in the right way. i don't think these last couple days moved us forward and john boehner has to make a different decision going forward. >> joining me now, mark murray. so mark, we have had two members of congress democrats on earlier today, both holding out hope and don't want to go over the cliff and both said they don't know where to go from here. >> i think that's the question that everyone is asking, whether

democrats on the hill, even some republicans on the hill and members of the press following this story. the timing is interesting. it was just on house that house speaker boehner offered his deal to raise tax cuts on a million dollars in income or above and produced president obama and his compromises on $400,000 threshold as well as social security cuts. everyone thought there was going to be a deal and then spent three days focus and the republican "b" which democrats unilaterally opposed. >> let me read what speaker boehner believes the dems have done and it's nothing. >> president obama and senate democrats haven't done much of anything. their plan "b" is slow walk us over the fiscal cliff. for weeks, the white house said that if i moved on rates that they would make substantial concessions on spending cuts and entitlement reforms.

i did my part. they've done nothing. >> but you've pointed out and we just spoke with congresswoman swartz about the concessions the president made and there's some who believe he might go up to maybe 500,000 as the income threshold. >> that's right. one thing the house republicans and john boehner wanted is balance. essentially, a one to one in revenues and spending cuts and what the white house proposed on monday, actually, had 1.2 trillion dlar in new revenues and $1.2 in spending cuts, the balance. what upset house republicans is about $300 billion of those cuts actually dealt with interest and john boehner and house republicans said that interest, that's not a spending cut and though it's counted in previous spending cut scorings and where the divide is right now. you might not have a one to one but you have something very

close to that and why people are surprised. >> all right, mark. thank you very much. we'll see what happens tonight. thank you. >> thanks. same party, different day. a writer who says that the behavior prove they have no reason to cooperate with the president. will the next four years end up looking as the same four we just experienced? but first, the body of senator daniel inouye of hawaii is lying in state in the u.s. capitol rotunda. it is an honor afforded to only 31 other people. he is the second longest serving senator by the way in this country's history. i'm only in my 60's...

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will be more of the same, writes, quote, the house gop's plan "b" signifies something larger of obama's second term, none of the incentives of change for republicans, they have no reason to cooperate with the president. a staff writer for american prospect and joins us now. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> yesterday the president basically said that he felt that republicans were saying no because of his re-election and they needed to get over there. >> right. well, the problem is that what -- what president obama's hoping for is that republicans will see that he's won the election and decide it's time to cooperate but the basic incentives for republicans haven't actually changed. remember, the public doesn't really understand the process of policymaking very well but what it understands is both sides seem to agree on something that tends to work out for everyone and when one side intensely

disagrees, that tends to be not so great and as long as republicans can continue to intensely disagree with the president's proposals, they can essentially convince the public there's something wrong with them and harm president obama's political standing at not much to do to change that dynamic other than continue to press forward with what he wants to do and hope that the public sees that he's working in their best interest. >> we had a gop autopsy and, of course, the exit poll information that showed an incredible number of people associated the republican party with corporations and wealthy. talking about democrats, the association was the middle class and helping those folks and, in fact, you tweeted thut it's not that you're surprised that boehner put forth a plan from poor kids but worth noting. they have this image problem. forget about race an inclusive with women and people of color, based on the dynamic of helping middle class people and the

wealthiest in this country, there's a perception that the gop goes the way of the wealthiest. >> right. and i think that perception is real and the public has it. but when it comes to actually for the president obama trying to pass policies that would address those problems, that ceases to matter, i don't think. the public for whatever reason may understand that the gop's acting in the interest of a particular group of people but when it comes to sitting at the table and getting things done, the public says, look, both sides try to work together and figure out what's best for the country and when it seems like republicans are angry about what's going on at the table, the public says to themselves, well, if republicans are angry, i know we disagree with them on a lot of things but maybe they have a good point and president obama should listen to them a bit more. there's the -- i think the cnn poll showing 41% of americans think democrats should do more

compromising and i would say you'd probably 50% of americans saying something to the effect of both sides sitting together and get things done. americans don't quite understand that the republican party isn't necessarily interested in getting things done and they can gum up the works and create the impression that the democrats are somehow doing something untoward or doing something that is dangerous. >> all right. well, we'll see how the fiscal cliff negotiations play out but the blog is really interesting and certainly worth a lot of folks reading. thank you very much. a great pleasure having you on. >> thank you. >> coming up, the "news nation" gut check. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day

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there's a lot going on today. here are some things we thought you should know. corey booker announced he'll run for u.s. senate. earlier today, he tweeted, a link to a video explaining his plans.

>> i will explore the possibility of running for the united states senate in 2014. >> there had been speculation booker would challenge govern nor christie next year. outgoing massachusetts senator scott brown would have a good chance to remain senator if senator kerry is appointed secretary of state. a new poll shows 47% of vet voters would choose brown. he said he would back a federal assaults weapons ban. it oes time now for the gut check. the national rifle association will hold a news conference tomorrow morning to discuss what it calls, quote, meaningful contributions following the tragedy in newtown, connecticut. supporters have said that they would support new restrictions on guns including assault weapons and high ammunition clips. do you think the nra will

support any gun control legislation? go to facebook.come/newsnation to cast that vote. thank you so m we'll see you tomorrow, friday. "the cycle" is up next.